Need help and advice....tappering off oxy..suboxone..

Question

Here goes.  I've been addicted to oxycodone for about 2 years.  I went on suboxone about 10 months ago, was on that for about 4 months than right back to oxy.  I was averaging about 150 mg oxycodone a day and about 2 months ago it was bumped up to about 300 mg a day.  I finally realized that I am not going to go another day on oxy.  I went to dr. Monday and he put me on suboxone, 8mg 2x day for a total of 16 mg a day.  I took that mon and tues, felt ok.  Today, its 6 pm and I've taken 1 8mg sub and feel good...still have some achs and restlessnes but not horrible.  I've heard the horror stories about getting off sub and want to be on it as short as possible.  I'm hoping to be able to take only 8 mg a day for a short period and tapper down as quickly as possilbe.  I guess I'm just looking for advice, anyone tappered off fairly quickly (1 month, 2 months) sucessfully.  At least now I have a support system, na, counseling, friends that i didn't have last time to help.  Any advice would be so greatly appreciated.  I just wanna be back to normal.  Thanks so much.

justwannabenormal · Answer

Thanks for all the advice.....

Mom4Peace · Answer

Hi!! And good luck with your efforts to free yourself from addiction. I would speak to your doctor who prescribed the suboxone first. Clonidine has many uses, mild sedative is one, but you have to watch your blood pressure as well. Be careful.

salsinator · Answer

Hi there,  The best advice that I can give you with regards to sub is to only stay on them short term and take the lowest dose that you can and still be comfortable.  16mg is fairly high.  The other recommendation that I have is suboxone should really only be dosed once per day - I fail to understand why some docs dose it twice per day - the half life is 37.5 hours, so typically most people can even go as much as 48 hours inbetween doses.  Clonidine will help with the restlessness associated with withdrawal - that helped me a lot when I went off the suboxone.  Stay on 8mg for a few days, then try and cut that in half and go for maybe a week, then start to cut that in half and so on - you should be able to drop off in a couple weeks without much of a problem.  Anything longer than 21 days or so will result in some dependency.


Good Luck,

merrymaria · Answer

hi there and welcome...i m sorry i do not know much about sub but like you i heard horror stories about wding from it...yes i would do a taper as quickly as possible....i know what you mean about being and feeling normal...i wanted that so bad...i knew my old self was somewhere...i just had to find her again and that s what got me clean.  i was a heavy user taking 10 to 12 pills a day depending...for almost 4 years...did the cold turkey in july of 08 at home...took two weeks off and i been clean ever since....if you want it that bad you can make it happen...i m sure someone will help you soon...if not please post again...sometimes it s slow...good luck to you....maria
ps...i thought clonidine was used to lower anxiety but i m not sure.

justwannabenormal · Answer

one more thing, i do have some clonidine 0.1 mg, was thinking of using they in addition to sub to hopefully lower sub usage???thanks again, new to the board and is great to hear some of the success stories, there is hope i guess.